Hiranuma Kiichirō

In this Japanese name, the surname is Hiranuma.

Kiichirō Hiranuma
平沼 騏一郎
Hiranuma in 1939
Prime Minister of Japan
In office 5 January 1939 – 30 August 1939
Monarch	Hirohito
Preceded by	Fumimaro Konoe
Succeeded by	Nobuyuki Abe
Personal details
Born	(1867-09-28)28 September 1867 Tsuyama, Japan
Died	22 August 1952(1952-08-22) (aged 84) Tokyo, Japan
Political party	Independent
Children	Takeo Hiranuma (Adopted)
Alma mater	Tokyo Imperial University

Kiichirō Hiranuma (平沼 騏一郎, 28 September 1867 – 22 August 1952) was a prominent right-wing Japanese politician and Prime Minister of Japan in 1939. He was convicted of war crimes committed during World War II and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Early life

Hiranuma was born in what is now Tsuyama City, Okayama Prefecture, as the son of a low-ranking samurai from the Tsuyama Domain of Mimasaka Province. He graduated with a degree in English law from Tokyo Imperial University in 1888.

After graduation, he obtained a posting in the Ministry of Justice. In 1911, he was prosecutor for the High Treason Incident, the 1910 socialist-anarchist plot to assassinate the Meiji Emperor. The closed-court trial of 25 men and 1 woman, including 4 Buddhist monks, resulted in the execution of 12, including the feminist author Kanno Suga.

Ministry of Justice

Hiranuma established a reputation during his time at the Ministry of Justice as a strong opponent of government corruption, and successfully handled a number of high-profile cases. He served as director of the Tokyo High Court, public prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Japan, and Director of the Civil and Criminal Affairs Bureau. In 1909, he secured the conviction of 25 former and serving members of the Diet of Japan for accepting bribes from the Japan Sugar Company. He rose to become Vice Minister of Justice in 1911 and Public Prosecutor-general in 1912.

In 1915, he forced Home Minister Ōura Kanetake in the cabinet of Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu to resign for suspected bribery.

Hiranuma was highly outspoken against corruption and immorality in Japan's political parties, and that attitude soon expanded to include what he saw to be foreign threats, such as socialism and liberal democracy.

With Sadao Araki, Hiranuma created the Kokuhonsha group and participated in other nationalist groups.

In 1921, Hiranuma became chief of the Supreme Court.

Unlike other Japanese leaders who were skeptical or indifferent to anti-Semitic theories, Hiranuma was affected by them. A fervent anti-Semite, he believed Jews controlled the upper echelons of world politics and economy.

Hiranuma was Minister of Justice under the second Yamamoto administration from September 1923 to January 1924. In that capacity, he promoted the creation of the Tokkō to combat communism, socialism, and the spread of what he considered subversive ideologies. In 1924, he became chairman of the House of Peers and was also appointed to the Privy Council. In 1926, he was elevated to the title of danshaku (baron) under the Kazoku peerage system abolished by the 1947 Constitution.

Privy Councilor

Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal Kurahei Yuasa visits Chairman of the Privy Council Hiranuma in preparation to visit the kingmaker Lord Saionji for final selection of the next Prime Minister, 31 May 1937.

Hiranuma served on the Privy Council for over 10 years, and exerted considerable behind-the-scenes influence. He was strongly opposed to Prime Minister Wakatsuki Reijirō's efforts at economic reform. He was also strongly opposed to the ratification of the London Naval Treaty of 1930. In 1931, he rallied support within the government for the Imperial Japanese Army after it had seized control of Manchuria without prior authorization, and he later helped in the creation of Manchukuo. He also pushed for Japan's withdrawal from the League of Nations. According to one theory, he in 1934 he directed the prosecution during the Teijin Incident.

In 1936, Hiranuma was appointed President of the Privy Council.

Prime minister

The Hiranuma Cabinet, including Minister-without-Portfolio Fumimaro Konoe (to the right of Hiranuma), Interior Minister Kōichi Kido (second row, between Hiranuma and Konoe), Naval Minister Mitsumasa Yonai (back row, with dark military suit) and War Minister Seishirō Itagaki (to the right of Yonai, with light military suit), 5 January 1939.

Hiranuma was Prime Minister of Japan from 5 January 1939 to 30 August 1939. His administration was dominated by the debate on whether Japan should ally itself with Germany against the Soviet Union. Hiranuma wanted an anticommunist pact, but feared a military alliance would commit Japan to war against the United States and the United Kingdom when most of its armed forces were already committed to the Second Sino-Japanese War.

With the signing of the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact in August 1939, Hiranuma's cabinet resigned over that foreign policy issue and over the massive defeat of the Japanese Army in Mongolia during the Nomonhan Incident against the Soviet Union.

Return to cabinet

Hiranuma became a central figure in a conservative reaction against the New Order Movement promoted by Fumimaro Konoe since his reappointment as prime minister in July 1940. Hiranuma criticised the Imperial Rule Assistance Association as a potential "new shogunate" prejudicial to the prerogatives of the Emperor. Hiranuma was furthermore concerned that the new organisation was being dominated by radicals with socialist tendencies, such as Yoriyasu Arima, Kingoro Hashimoto and Seigo Nakano.

Eventually Konoe himself began to feel that the New Order Movement had become too radical. As a solution for this Hiranuma entered the cabinet as Home Minister in December 1940. Hiranuma's associate, Lieutenant General Heisuke Yanagawa became minister of justice at the same time. Hiranuma moved to neutralise the IRAA, stating in the Diet in January 1941 that the IRAA would not conduct politics, but merely serve as a public association supporting the state. In March the leadership of the IRAA was replaced, with Yanagawa being appointed to the hitherto vacant post of vice president and the moderate former Finance Minister Sōtarō Ishiwata replacing Yoriyasu Arima as secretary general. Hiranuma declared in April that IRAA would be under the supervision and control of the Home Ministry.

As Home Minister, he was a staunch defender of State Shinto. Hiranuma declared: "We should research the ancient rites in detail and consider their application in administrative affairs in general and the common life of the nation.”

Hiranuma was strongly opposed to the political and diplomatic actions of Foreign Minister Yōsuke Matsuoka and to the Tripartite Pact concluded between Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, and Fascist Italy in September 1940. The cabinet was reshuffled in July 1941 in order to remove Matsuoka, partially due to Hiranuma's maneuvering.

In the new cabinet Matsuoka was replaced by Admiral Teijiro Toyoda. Hiranuma and Yanagawa became ministers without portfolio, with Hiranuma's protégé Harumichi Tanabe as his successor in the Home Ministry. During this period Hiranuma frequently met with the American Ambassador Joseph Grew in order to de-escalate the conflict between Japan and America. In August 1941 was Hiranuma attacked in his home by a member of a small ultranationalist group. Despite being shot six times Hiranuma survived and fully recovered.

Hiranuma withdrew from government upon the resignation of Konoe in October 1941.

Jushin

Hiranuma served as one of the jushin (重臣), or unofficial senior advisors, to Emperor Hirohito during World War II. Hiranuma saw the jushin as the core of a new group of genrō advisors, as the last surviving Meiji period genrō, Prince Saionji Kinmochi, had died in November 1940. The new group included former Prime Ministers Mitsumasa Yonai, Nobuyuki Abe and Fumimaro Konoe. In April 1945, Hiranuma was again appointed President of the Privy Council.

Prosecution and conviction

After the War, he was arrested by the American Occupation Authorities and was convicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East as a Class A War Criminal.

He was given a life sentence, but paroled in early 1952, and died shortly afterwards. His grave is in Tama Cemetery, outside Tokyo.

References

Bibliography

• Bix, Herbert P. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. Harper Perennial (2001). ISBN 0-06-093130-2
• Brendon, Piers. The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s. Vintage; Reprint edition (2002). ISBN 0-375-70808-1
• Frank, Richard B. Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire. Penguin (Non-Classics); Reissue edition (2001). ISBN 0-14-100146-1
• Sherman, Christine. War Crimes: International Military Tribunal. Turner Publishing Company. (2001). ISBN 1-56311-728-2
• Wolferen, Karel van. The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation. Vintage; Reprint edition (1990). ISBN 0-679-72802-3
• Hotta, Eri (2013). Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 9780385350518.
• Krebs, Gerhard (2006). "The German Nazi Party: A model for Japan's 'New Order'". In Spang, Christian W.; Wippich, Rolf-Harald (eds.). Japanese-German Relations, 1895-1945: War, Diplomacy and Public Opinion. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 180–199. ISBN 9781134292998.

External links

• Newspaper clippings about Hiranuma Kiichirō in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW